MOULTRIE – Although the Colquitt County boys basketball team won its 13th game of the season Saturday, Packers coach Andy Harden characterized his team’s play as sluggish.
Some of that lack of crispness could be attributed to the effects playing a rare afternoon game following an extremely disappointing loss at Tift County the night before.
The Packers, who trailed by a point early in the fourth quarter, defeated Richmond Hill 59-53 on the William Bryant Court on Saturday to raise their region record to 5-1 and their overall record to 13-3.
A bit of the satisfaction generated by the second win of the season over the Wildcats was diminished by the 47-43 Region 1-6A loss to the Blue Devils the night before.
The Packers led Tift County by three with two minutes left, only to falter.
A win would have been the first for a Packers team over Tift County in Tifton since 2001.
“We had them,” Harden said. “And we know how to finish. But we were just not able to finish that game. We had too many mental lapses.”
Colquitt had defeated Valdosta 45-43 on Tuesday, scoring three points in the final 24.6 seconds to claim that region win.
But three days later, the Packers were unable to hang on to get a win in the Tifton gymnasium where they have struggled to play well over the last two decades.
But Harden was pleased his team was able to bounce back and get another region win on Saturday.
“It’s good that we have won five of our first six (region games),” Harden said. “You’ve got to give our kids credit for getting stops tonight when we needed them down the stretch.
“We had some chances to take control of the game and we didn’t do it. But we did enough at the end to get the win. And we’ll take it. A win is a win.”
Harden also was pleased that the win came on Senior Recognition Day when Quan Kinsey, Ja’Shar Kinsey, JaKari Byrd and Kanilyn Jones were honored.
“I’m extremely proud of our seniors,” Harden said. “They’re doing something this season that they’ve never done since they’ve been playing.”
The Packers had defeated Richmond Hill 55-44 on a trip to the coast earlier this month.
But the Wildcats refused to go away quietly on Saturday.
Richmond Hill led by one after the first quarter, but were outscored 16-8 in the second.
Then the Wildcats pecked away at the Packers lead early in the second half and finally went ahead 50-49 on a basket by Drew Nudo 3 1/2 minutes into the final quarter.
But Jones scored the next seven points of the game to put the Packers up 56-50 with 36 seconds remaining.
Cason Harden added two free throws and Marcus Moore one in the final 19 seconds to put the game away.
Jones and Moore led the Packers with 14 points each and Zi Alridge came off the bench to add 13.
Byrd had eight; Ja’Shar Kinsey added six; and Harden and Alexis Barge each chipped two points.
Nudo led Richmond Hill with a game-high 19 points.
Colquitt County’s game against Lowndes scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed because of the threat of bad weather and will be played on January 31 in the Hawgnasium.